


Meeting You In Baltimore

by masterroadtripper



Series: All The Years Of Our Lives [1]
Category: Hairspray (2007)
Genre: "Wade" is Corny, Coming Out, Coming of Age, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, How They Met, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, homophobic violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-05-26 06:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14994500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterroadtripper/pseuds/masterroadtripper
Summary: How Link and Wade met.  Set 1960-1963.  A pre-prequel to Without Love and a prequel to Baltimore Baby.  All the same characters and storyline.





	1. A Turquoise Poster

**August 1959**

“Lincoln,” Ms. Julie, his ballet teacher called as he was putting his slippers away in his bag at the end of the practice. Link lifted his head from where he was crouched and looked towards the voice of the older Scottish lady. “Could you come over here for a second young man?” she asked, but didn’t sound mad. Link placed his bag on the floor and walked softly, and barefooted, across the studio to the rather short lady. Not that Link was tall either, but she was still shorter than him.

“Yes Ms. Julie?” he asked as he got closer.

“Did you see this ad?” she asked, handing a newspaper to him. On the front page was a casting call out for the local singing and dancing show for teenagers, The Corny Collins Show. Of course Link had seen it. He had only been watching the show since it first aired last year. Never missing an episode, Link knew all the dances, all the moves and most of the songs. It was his favourite thing on the television.

“I did,” Link said, handing it back to her, “But I can’t, not this year.”

“Why not? You’re such a good dancer Lincoln, you could easily take one of these three spots open to you,” Ms. Julie said, scrutinizing the paper she held.

“I know I’m a good dancer,” Link said, looking towards his feet, still tightly bound in faded white tights, “but I just can’t.”

“Okay Lincoln. Have a good night then,” Ms. Julie said, turning to her own bag. Link walked back across the room to his stuff and continued putting everything away.

* * *

It was cool outside as Link walked home with his backpack full of dance stuff on his back. He was glad he had opted to put his pants back on before making the twenty five minute walk home. There was a substantial wind blowing past him as he made his way up a hill. Past him blew some airborne garbage and a flyer wrapped itself around his leg. Link sighed and reached down to pull it off. The paper was turquoise and read, “Open Auditions For The Corny Collins Show.” He let it go and watched it flutter into the wind. Link was almost convinced that either Ms. Julie was cursing him, or some magical being with a sixth sense that could read his mind.

Link originally started watching the Corny Collins Show for the singing and dancing. He himself had been dancing since he was able to stand and had a half decent singing voice, so he found himself inspired by the show. Then, he found another part of himself. One that he kind of wished didn’t exist. He found himself watching for the show host. The man in his early twenties that ran the show. At first, Link thought it was just because he liked the man’s rich, deep voice. Then he thought it was because of his style of dancing; calm, relaxed and natural. Then it was his clothing choices; the vibrant purples, blues, whites, and metallics. Then, Link figured it was how he looked; the curly brown hair, the grey eyes that crinkled when he smiled, the massive wide smile.

It was illegal, Link knew, to feel the way he did. To feel the same way towards men than other men felt towards women. But he couldn’t change it. So he just didn’t think about Corny Collins anywhere other than at home, when he was alone. Alone was harder and harder to come by nowadays though. With his mom sick and home from work again, she often sat in front of the television, watching reruns of day time soap operas. She liked to watch him sing and dance alone with the show music though, so every time the Corny Collins Show came on, she would dutifully change the channel.

So yah, Link wanted to dance on the Corny Collins Show, but being in such close proximity to the man he had a major crush on, that would only be a recipe for disaster.

* * *

Link opened the front door to the small townhouse his family lived in and tried to push it closed as quietly as possible. Likely, at this time of night, his mother would be sleeping off the after effects of yet another round of treatment for cancer. It was about six months ago by now that the doctor had broken the news. Breast cancer, and she would have to have the left breast surgically removed, then radiotherapy. Link figured he may get it some day too, with genetics and all that, which is why he tried to live in the present.

As he tried to walk silently through the house, he noticed the light of the television in the front room. He poked his head in and saw his mother laying on the couch. She had a pillow propping her head up and a knit blanket covering her legs.

“Hey mom,” Link said, walking into the room and placing his dance bag at the foot of the couch.

“Hi Lincoln,” his mother said, smoothing a hand over a portion of the blanket. Link assumed that meant he was to sit down there. “How was rehearsal tonight?”

“It was good, we are working on some barre combos for the ballet exam,” he replied, easing onto the couch. Even as sick as his mother was, she still radiated warmth and comfort.

“Did you see that opening for the Corny Collins Show?” His mother asked. He realized that everyone was just trying to help, but it was starting to bug him. If he wanted to audition, he would. But he didn’t want to, so he wouldn’t.

“I saw it,” Link said before attempting to explain, “but I’m not going to.”

“Lincoln Adam Larkin, I’ve seen you dance along with that show for a full year. Why not?”

“I can’t mom, okay?” Link said, crossing his arms over his midsection.

“You wouldn’t be too young, you are in the ninth grade now,” his mother reasoned. Even though Link could never share with her why he didn’t want to go on the show, he wondered if he should do it. Just to see if he could. Didn’t mean he would have to accept the position.

“I guess, but all those kids are really good dancers, I only have my grade four ballet, that's not very high,” Link reasoned.

“Darling, for a thirteen year old, you’re doing really good. Is there another reason you don’t want to do this?” His mom asked, smoothing her hand up his back and running it in circles.

“No, just nervous, s’all mom,” he replied. If only she knew.


	2. A Blue Shirt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link auditions for the Corny Collins Show

**August 1959**

Link stood in front of his closet, the real one, not the proverbial one, and scowled at his lack of nice clothing. Sure he had button up shirts and nice jeans that he wore to school, but for an audition to be on the Corny Collins Show, he would need something nicer than that. He didn’t even have a sunday best, his family didn’t go to church. Link put his hands on his hips and frowned once more before giving up and heading into the kitchen where his father sat, reading the newspaper.

“Dad, could you help me?” He asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of the tattered jeans he wore around home. That would be another thing, all the kids on the show, they went to the same high school Link did and he knew most of them came from Butchers Hill, one of the richest neighbourhoods in Baltimore. He lived in Patterson Park, not slums by any means, but solidly middle class. Their family rarely did anything fancy and his father owned two suits, both of which he wore to his middle class job at the military base, Fort Meade.

“Sure Link,” his father said, rising from his chair and putting his newspaper down, “what can I help you with?” His father ruffled Link’s black hair, recently cut shorter for the start of the school year.

“I need something fancier to wear to the audition,” Link said, looking at the ground to hide his embarrassment. He knew his family was running low on funds from his mother’s cancer treatments, so he felt the guilt settling like a rock in the bottom of his stomach.

“Hmm, I don’t have much stuff either, but let's see if we can’t pull something together, yeah?” his father said as they walked into his parents bedroom. His mother was laying on the bed reading, propped up with a half dozen pillows.

“What are you boys looking for?” His mother asked, putting a bookmark into her book and resting it on the bedspread next to her.

“Some clothes for my audition,” Link reported and followed his father to the closet while the older man pulled out some ties and suspenders.

“You have black dress pants?” His father asked. Link nodded and ran off to his room to grab them from where they hug. In his room, Link pulled off his tattered jeans and quickly changed into the dress pants, which hug loose around his hips, showing off his white underwear. Searching through his closet only turned up one belt, a brown one that he had owned for years. Giving up on the search, Link grabbed the extra material at the front of his dress pants and pulled them up before making his way back to his parents’ room.

His father laughed when he saw the size of Link’s dress pants and said, “here are some suspenders.” The black pieces of fabric were clipped onto the inside of his pants and while just wearing the nice bottoms and a faded white tee-shirt, Link felt a little fancier already.

“Lets see, what shirt can we find for that?” His father pondered before turning back into the closet and hunting through his hangers of clothes.

“How about that dark blue one?” His mother pitched in weakly from the bed, “It would make his eyes just glow.”

“Okay,” His father replied and pulled said dark blue shirt from the closet. Aside from having very few suits, Major General Adam Larkin mostly had military dress in his closet. Anytime they went to a formal event, his father would wear his military garb, and to work, he wore the same thing. So, almost any other formal wear was from when his father was younger and pre-military. Even then, the shirt hung off Link due to its size. Not only was Link only thirteen, and the shirt probably fit his father at eighteen, but size-wise, Link resembled his mother. He was not tall and was rather thin. It made for a good dancer, but did not help his fit into his father’s clothing.

“It's a little big…,” his father said, standing back after helping Link tuck the shirt into his black pants and getting the suspenders clipped back up.

“Its okay dad,” Link said, looking at himself in the mirror. He did look good. Link always thought he had a big mouth and when he sung, well sometimes, it looked funny. But the shirt did bring out the colour of his eyes, which he got from his dad, and distracted from his mouth.

“Do you have any ties?” Link asked.

“Yes, but none will fit you, they’ll be way too long,” his father said.

“What about a bow tie?” his mother added, “Maybe the white one?” Once again retreating into the closet, his father pulled out a white piece of fabric.

“Your mother will have to help you with this one,” his dad said, handing the soft, silky white fabric to Link. He walked to his mother’s side of the bed and sat next to her as she reached out to begin tying it up.

* * *

Link still felt incredibly underdressed among the other kids in line to audition for the show. All the girls had their hair either styled up immaculately or tied into complex up-dos. They wore rather lovely dresses and had shoes that were meant for dancing. The other boys, well most had at least a suit jacket over top of their dress shirts. And their shirts fit and they had on shoes more suited to the atmosphere. Link had chosen to wear his older stage shoes that fit like a second skin but still looked decent. The one thing that Link did have in common with the other guys was that he had chosen to style up his hair. He did it very rarely and hated washing the crud out, but it looked nice.

They were told to line up by an older lady with rather blond hair. She was thin, and looked almost sickly and her dress was so shiny and covered in sequins, Link wasn’t sure how his eyes didn’t get burned out from the glare off the stage lights. And the building itself, Link was in such awe to even be standing in it. It was his dream come true. It would be even better if he didn’t get so nervous he screwed up on stage. So far, in his almost ten years of dancing, he’d only forgotten a dance once.

The warehouse was painted entirely turquoise on the back half on the insides, where the camera could see the walls while filming. The stage itself had been stripped bare of any promotional decor and only the booth Corny Collins stood at remained. Speaking of which, Link looked around to see if Corny Collins was actually around. It didn’t seem like it, but why would he be? It was the weekend and they weren’t filming any shows.

“This is the combo of moves you’ll need to show us today,” the old blond haired lady said before motioning to the rest of the council members to come over. The other kids, the original dancers on the show from last season, minus the three boys and two girls that had graduated high school, leaving the openings.

“Five, six, seven, eight!” the lady, Velma Von Tussle, Link learned, shouted and the other kids, the council members started doing a dance combo that was from the show. Link knew because he had practiced this particular combo in front of the television before. So he did what he knew to do, twisting his hips and moving his hands around how they belonged.

Link always liked dancing. It allowed him to zone out, let his body move but his brain think. So this combo, once he felt the movement in his bones, was simple to follow and zone out to. His brain started wandering and looking around the studio. Not just at the props and stage this time but actually the people. There was all the council members that Link had seen on stage and on the television, and Ms. Von Tussle, the choreographer but all the other people that made the show tick. The janitor sweeping the dust off the stage and another maintenance worker repainting the walls that the camera would end up filming. The female council members dancing with various candidates for their two empty spaces over on the other side of the studio.

Link barely noticed when the side stage door opened, temporarily filling the stage area with light before it closed again, but what did draw his attention was the person who walked through the doors and came to stand beside Ms. Von Tussle. Corny Collins. Link had to focus on what he was doing very very quickly so he wouldn’t crash into the other boy next to him or trip on his own feet.

“Five, six, seven, eight,” Ms. Von Tussle shouted while clapping her hands one more time, “and stop!”

“Good afternoon boys,” Corny Collins shouted, taking over from Ms. Von Tussle who had started to walk over to the group of girls on the other side of the studio. Some of the kids around him were either not out of breath, completely out of breath, or somewhere in between.

“Alright gents,” Corny Collins said, “this is what is going to happen. I need to talk to you each individually. When it is not your turn, you’ll be dancing with our current council members and they’ll be helping me access your dance skills. When I’m not here, you are going to listen to Jamie, Vern and Steve. Take it away boys!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its taken so long to update this. My last year of high school just started and my life has been pretty crazy. Thanks for everyone hanging in there!


	3. The First First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its Link's first day on the Corny Collins Show and he meets the rest of the cast and his new dance partner

**September 1959**

Link barely slept the night before the first day he would be entering the WYZT Studio as a cast member. Yet when he woke up the next morning, Link felt surprisingly well rested. He dressed in a white dress shirt, one that was probably too small, but was clean, washed and ironed. Unlike the dark blue one he wore to the audition. But he re-wore the black dress pants, only after smacking the dust off the cuffs.

The walk to the studio took twenty five minutes, just a little longer than the walk to the dance studio, and yet, Link managed to wrinkle his dress shirt. It was way too hot outside to be wearing long sleeves and long pants, so he rolled up his cuffs, not thinking of the consequences. Now, standing at the front door to the studio, Link tried to smooth the wrinkles before one of the other council members noticed. But for all of his deliberation, Link still managed to bump into a fellow cast member. Cameron. He would be in grade eleven, Link seemed to remember.

“Hey dude,” Cameron said, clapping Link on the shoulder, “nervous for your first day?”

“Kinda,” Link agreed, “I also wrinkled my shirt.”

He tried smoothing his sleeves down once again before Cameron grabbed his arm and said, “Just leave it kid, we all end up rolling up our sleeves anyways.”

“Thanks,” Link said, still not sure how to respond to Cameron’s help.

“Your names’ Lincoln, right?” Cameron asked, moving to open the studio stage door.

“I prefer Link,” he responded, moving inside the building through the door Cameron had opened.

“I’m Cameron, but I prefer Cam,” he said, “I just use Cameron on the show ‘cause it works better with the intro song.” Link smiled and chuckled a little before following Cam’s lead once again towards the bleachers where a few of the other kids had started gathering.

Cam explained, “We usually wait here till Ms. Von Tussle and Corny get here, then we’ll start rehearsal.”

“So, you mean Corny Collins will be here, today?” Link said and felt his heart plummet about six stories inside his ribcage. He barely contained himself on Monday night at the audition when he spoke with Corny Collins for almost two minutes. How was he going to dance alongside the man for the entirety of their rehearsal?

“Yeah, he usually just hangs around and gives extra help to the crew that are struggling with a move or something,” Cam explained as they sat on one of the wooden bleacher benches. Well great. Link was either going to have to avoid the super attractive show host all day, or just get over it and think about something really disgusting, like road kill, all day.

“Good morning boys and girls!” The rich voice that Link had been able to pick out of a song for a little over a year shouted. Link looked up - and right into the grey eyes of the show host. Beside him stood Ms. Von Tussle, the choreographer, looking rather old in a loose fitting, bland purple dress. But, that was the style recently, so he guessed she was just going along with it.

“As most of you know, we have five new members with us here today,” Corny Collins said. Link and Cam, who were sitting in the second row, put them at eye level with their instructors.

“My five new dancers, where are you? Could you stand up for me?” Corny asked and Link scolded his brain for accepting the order so easily. The older man’s voice almost had a weirdly mythical effect. Standing with the other four, fellow ninth grade students, Link tried to shrink in his frame. He was the only one in ill-fitting clothing that was wrinkled. Suddenly, Link felt something sharp fit his calf and he looked down. Cam had just pinched him. And was now giving him thumbs up. Link figured it was supposed to be encouraging and stood a little straighter in his small dress shirt.

“This year, it is my pleasure to introduce to you Link, Mikey, Bix, Becky and Amber,” Corny said and Link felt his heart plummet within in chest. So that’s what his name heard like said by Corny Collins. Link immediately regretted that though and aimed his gaze towards the ground.

“As you know, most dances will involve partners, so you will be learning to dance with a pre-determined person,” Corny said again while Ms. Von Tussle pulled a piece of paper out of seemingly nowhere.

“Mikey, you will be with Becky,” Ms. Von Tussle said while motioning to one of the new girls that Link assumed was rather attractive, judging by the look on Mikey’s face. “Bix, you will be with Darla and Amber, you will be with Link.” Link closed his eyes and thanked his lucky stars that Amber was kinda pretty. He knew he wasn’t too bad looking either. At least that way, when his co-stars start dating, he could try to date Amber. Try. Link felt his stomach curdling just at the thought. Lost in thought, Link was jolted back to attention at Cam kicking his ankle. Sitting down with the rest of the group, Link tried his best to pay attention.

Amber seemed to have very very little actually going for her. Yes, she was probably good looking, judging by the way the other guys looked at her and as far as Link could tell, she seemed like a good dancer. But she had zero personality. She was more like a shell of a human. Potentially comparable to a Barbie doll. Her blond hair seemed fake with its lack of movement while she danced and the smile she plastered onto her face seemed like it never moved and was the same and weirdly perfect the whole time. The dress she wore, well, Link figured it was following in the fashion of the times. But it was not attractive. Light pink made her look even more pale than she already was. All in all, Link figured that if he had to end up dating a female co-star, he could live with Amber. She seemed like she would be oblivious to the world around her anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't updated in so long. My life has been a royal mess lately. Hopefully I'll try and get some more finished sometime soon.


End file.
